


Silence is Golden

by DragonMaster_Shi



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, I just got the final memory and needed to write something, Kinda, Selectively Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), Short One Shot, its mutual I guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:15:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28663803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonMaster_Shi/pseuds/DragonMaster_Shi
Summary: Life after the calamity is unnervingly peaceful, and Link isn’t sure what to do
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Kudos: 34





	Silence is Golden

**Author's Note:**

> It's short sorry, but I just felt like writing something. I love them.

Link has never gotten used to the peaceful lull of silence. The silence used to feel stifling, twisting around his chest and constricting it, suffocating him as it seemed to whisper, "be on your guard, hero, be on your guard." This silence is softer, warmer. It envelopes Link in a calming lull of lukewarm peace, and it is this peace that has become far more common in the past months since the end of Canon's reign, and Link still treasures each moment of it. Memories have also been coming easier, less of a groundbreaking shock, although he sometimes still goes catatonic for some of them.

Of course, peace isn't the only thing experienced in the past months. Wounds leave scars, they both knew it, but neither were aware of quite how much pain those scars can cause in their own right.

Link pulls himself up from his spot on the floor next to his bed, feeling the flax mat under his feet as he stands slowly. He gazes at Zelda, who is curled up under his bed's covers, her blonde hair framing the sides of her face. _"I'm going for a walk, Zel,"_ he signs, murmuring her name as he weaves her name sign with tired, shaking fingers. He knows she can't actually see him through the soft nothingness of sleep, but it brings him comfort to alert her, not as her knight but as her companion.

He pads down the stairs with silent footsteps, and reaches out, hand twitching over the master sword for a second before he decides against bringing it. He truly wants to believe that, if only for a second, he shouldn't need to carry around the stinging reminder of his role in the world, no matter how depressingly _right_ it feels in his scarred hands.

To Link, the night is refreshing. Crickets purr loudly from inside the long grass, adding a chorus of reassurance to the pristine, clear night. His weary body gains a slow trickle of energy, not unlike a spring bubbling into a small stream. His legs almost involuntarily lead him to a ridge overlooking Hateno, and he sits down next to the edge, feet dangling off the side as he looks out over the sea of twinkling lights forming whitecaps and lulls as the stars become blocked by peaks and hills, the vast landscape sprawling before him.  
"It's rather pretty when it's like this, you think?" Link, having heard Zelda's familiarly light footsteps behind him, isn't surprised at her presence.

"Hi Zel," he expresses, his voice soft and hesitatant from its relative disuse. Mipha, long ago, had once pointed out that his voice wasn't especially herolike, and that fact still stands true. Although it's easier with Zelda for some reason that even he doesn't know, just as it was with Aryll and Mipha back then,oftentimes the words still scratch like sandpaper on his tongue as he chokes out whatever unimportant thing he's trying to say. Zelda sits down next to him, half-interlacing their fingers delicately as she stares out along the endless sky with him. With her shorter, choppy hair scraped into a messy ponytail and her champion's pajamas (a joke gift from Purah) they match in both clothes and hair, and in the dark both Zelda's blonde him and Link's soft caramel hair colors look to be the same shade of off-gray.

"I missed this."

"What?"

"I dunno, everything, I guess. When I was fighting him- Ganon, I mean- I was there, but at the same time I was kinda... Everywhere? "I was imprisoned, but at the same time, I'd never been so free! I could go for a walk, all I had to do was think of a place and I'd see it."

"Oh." Link ponders for a second, processing the information given to him. " I guess I kind of get it, in a way. After I woke up, everyone was always weighing all these responsibilities on me until they layered and layered a-and I felt crushed by them. I was supposed to be the hero of le-legend, and save you and everyone else. I couldn't even _remember myself,_ Zel." He pauses for a second, and takes a deep breath, before continuing slowly and deliberately, "but at th- th- the same time, it was almost a-as if I h-ha- had the whole wo- wwwhor..." he trails off, knowing that any attempt beyond this to communicate verbally beyond this point is futile; that all his meager attempts will end in him choking and sputtering on the words caught in his throat. Zelda, understanding this, unlaces her fingers from his tentatively, smiling patiently as he reprograms what he wants to say from words into sign. _"It was almost as if I had the whole world to myself most of the time, without anyone really telling me what to do. It was, in that sense, wonderful."_

Zelda chuckles, leaning her head onto Link's shoulder gingerly. "Guess we're both pretty messed up, huh."

Link wraps one arm around Zelda's waist, pulling her the tiniest bit closer to him. He raises his hand hesitantly , and slowly fingerspells, _"yeah... But I think... I think it's okay though."_ And somehow, they both know that to be true.


End file.
